This site is about everything digital, giving an update on new things as I learn

Tag: Cloud

Last week saw the UK launch of Amazon’s Cloud Player, a service enabling Amazon users to play their music stored in the cloud (through Amazon’s Cloud Drive) from any computer or Android device connected to the Internet. The service was launched in the US back in July, and now Amazon’s UK customers will be able to experience the same service. These are the main propositions that the Cloud Player is promising to offer:

Your Music. Everywhere. – Seamless access to one’s music is rapidly becoming a ‘given’ when it comes to offering music services. Irrespective of the device one is using – smartphone, tablet, PC or ebook reader – users expect to be able to access music wherever, whenever. No surprise then that this is the main underlying promise of the Cloud Player: your music is available on a range of devices (e.g. Android, iPod, iPhone, Sonos, etc.) and the experience will be consistent across all of these devices and platforms.

Import your music collection – Like iTunes Match and Google Play, Amazon’s Cloud Player will enable users to upload their own music collections, with Amazon matching the music on your PC to their 20m track catalogue. This means that music purchased from Amazon or iTunes or from ripped CDs will be matched against Amazon’s catalogue, upgraded (to a better audio quality where possible) and made available through the Cloud Player.

Secure and easy to use – Amazon promises that for all the MP3 songs and albums users purchase or have purchased in the past will be automatically saved to Cloud Player, which means you’ll have a secure backup copy of the music you buy at Amazon. The ‘secure’ and ‘instant’ aspect are key to any service of this kind. I haven’t used the Cloud Player yet but this would be main challenges to any product or service which promises a great user experience. Is is easy to use? Does is ‘just work’?

I haven’t yet tried the Cloud Player, but reading user and expert reviews gives an interesting insight into this new service. The main thing that struck me is that users are restricted from buying songs through the Cloud Player app on Apple devices (think iPhone, iPad and Mac). This means that one can use the Cloud Player for listening and streaming on an Apple device but not for buying music. I know I’m biased (since I work for 7digital, a competitor of iTunes and Amazon Music) but this defeats the purpose of using a service that promises to work ‘everywhere’.

Main learning point: I guess the main caveat to this blog post is that, as I say, I work for a (smaller) competitor of Amazon in 7digital. At 7digital, we always try to concentrate on a consistent user experience that ‘just works’ irrespective of the device or operating system one uses. Services like Amazon Cloud Player are good solutions for anyone who wishes to ‘consolidate’ his/her music collection. I guess the main downside of using the likes of Amazon and iTunes is that they are pretty ‘vertical’ which means that their products only work totally seamlessly and as intended on their own devices and operating systems, which has bearing on the overall user experience.

A few blog posts ago, I wrote about streaming and tried to clarify what this involves. One of the upcoming digital trends of 2011 is cloud-based streaming of music. Good examples of this new trend are Apple’s iCloud service and Amazon’s Cloud Drive, but also the likes of Spotify, Pandora and Google are now very active in this area (see overview below).

I’m sure that this field will further evolve in 2011 with existing providers solidifying this revenue stream and new providers jumping the bandwagon. These are some of the things that I have learned so far about music streaming:

The service – On-demand streaming is all about delivering tracks and albums, providing users with easy access to online music across a number of platforms (web, mobile). With the cloud component, there’s also the option of user storing all their music. Apple’s iCloud for instance scans all of user’s music (including digital downloads not through iTunes) and matches it with the music catalogue in the iTunes Store and automatically stores it in iCloud.

The business model – This kind service is either free (totally free or to an extent), supported by advertising or a paid-for model (with users subscribing to the service and providers offering basic and premium packages).

Changed consumer behaviour? – I guess the long-term success of music streaming will very much depend on whether consumers are happy to pay just for access to music (instead of downloading and owning the music). A recent US survey found that that more than half of respondents preferred to purchase music files online, the top way of consuming music.Only 13% of online music consumers preferred to pay for online streaming (see survey results below). Another recent survey indicated that streaming services discourages music purchasing, which is the kind behaviour that might well only apply to those converted to music streaming and access.

Main learning point: it will be interesting to see how providers of music streaming services will shape their business models to generate sustainable revenue from streaming. In terms of consumer uptake, will it be case of only select group of people willing to pay for streaming and the large majority of users to stick with free music (streaming)?

Intrigued by its cool sounding name, I wanted to find out more about Fanhattan. I then came across this demo by one of the founders of the service, which has been going for about a year now. In this demo, Gilles BianRosa (CEO) made it clear that Fanhattan is all about content and not about the individual apps that host films or TV shows.

As BianRosa explained, for the Fanhattan user it’s most and foremost about “what do I want to watch?” This means that as a user I will look for the content first and Fanhattan will subsequently present me with a range of services where I can access this content (think Netflix, iTunes and Amazon).

These are the main things that I learned about Fanhattan:

It acts as a ‘content gateway’ – Rather than having to go into a specific app or service, Fanhattan enables you to look for the content you want to watch, after which it will let you know through which services you can access this content. The app is built in HTML5 which means it will fully support rich media like audio and video.

It offers content in the broadest sense of the word – It’s a shame Fanhattan isn’t available in the UK yet, because I would love to have a closer look at all the features Fanhattan displays around a specific piece of content. Call me a geek but I would be very interested in seeing up close how Fanhattan display products or data related to “The Godfather” such as merchandising, the movie soundtrack, PG ratings, similar films recommendations and film info.

It has a clear social element – As we know, digital content lends itself incredibly well to sharing with your friends and to friend recommendations. Fanhattan taps into this social discovery element by enabling its users to build a Taste Profile with the content they have watched, which they can easily share with friends. Similarly, if you like a film or TV show on Fanhattan this will automatically appear on your Facebook wall.

It’s cross-platform – Being available on a number of platforms sounds like a no-brainer but Fanhattan has been following a (in my mind sensible) phased approach to rolling out on different platforms, with the iPhone being the latest addition. I understand that TV and game consoles are next on Fanhattan’s product roadmap.

It’s cloud based – Because the content discovery element of Fanhattan is happening in the cloud, it should increase Fanhattan’s flexibility in displaying and storing (discovery) data and content.

It has a flexible model – Users can either subscribe to Fanhattan (like you do for services like Spotify or Rdio) or pay Fanhattan for each transaction separately. It’s a shame no figures are publicly available on the uptake of Fanhattan as a subscription service vs. users paying for content on an ad-hoc basis.

Main learning point: I do see apps like Fanhattan playing an important role in the discovery of new content, acting as a user-friendly portal to a wide range of content-oriented services. At present, Fanhattan isn’t available in the UK; I’ll be keeping an eye out for Fanhattan or similar services rolling out on these shores. Will users warm up to the idea that you can use a single service to access the content? Will they move away from the likes of Lovefilm, Netflix or Amazon in favour of Fanhattan or a Spotify-like service focused on films/TV shows?

A few months ago, I went to a talk by Niall Murphy at London Business School where he talked to a large group of MBA students about “An experience & perspective from a serial startup tech entrepreneur”. Niall co-founded The Cloud, one of the first major players in the wireless network (WiFi) market, which business was then sold for a ‘handsome sum’ to BSkyB. In his talk, Murphy described the process from “insight” (having a new business idea and turning it into a business) to “next phase / exit”. I liked how he broke this process down into some distinct stages (obviously helped by the beautiful thing that is hindsight):

Insight – This is the phase where Murphy saw an an opportunity in mobile ethernet technology, when faced by the difficulty of getting Internet access in Amsterdam.

Idealistic vision – I guess it’s one thing to spot an opportunity, but how do you then assess its potential and act on it? Murphy explained his original idea of mobile Internet everywhere and then went on to stress the importance of having a vision. A vision that you must try and stick with, a set of values, an aspiration to hang onto.

Wilderness and fog – Murphy took us through the ‘dark’ years; working his way through wireless technology and finding initial investment. This phase is all about finding a foothold, and developing a picture in your head of the current marketplace and the way in which it’s likely to evolve.

Clarity and catalyst opportunity – Murphy pointed out that this stage is very much an evolving process; assessing the market space and competitors, concentrating on key user scenarios, all based on your original insight.

Clarity of market entry strategy and catalyst opportunity – This phase is all about creating a market entry strategy that works for your business, finding a way to ‘change the game’. In Murphy’s case this meant linking with a company that specialised in putting game computers in pubs and shops. The Cloud piggybacked on the broadband network that this company was rolling out across their game computer locations.

Execution and leverage – The Cloud focused very much on so-called ‘golden events’ to create more leverage and momentum (then using their small PR machine to create leverage around these events) as well as concentrating day-to-day business.

Crisis and tough stuff – Murphy made it very clear that starting your own business is by no means a case of an upward facing curve. In the case of The Cloud, they had their fair share of internal crises, drastic business decisions and an overall fear of things falling apart.

“2nd life” – They say that crises and challenges make you stronger. In the case of The Cloud, following the crisis phase, they slowed down the rate of execution, consolidated the business and thus regained their focus.

Next level or exit? – Murphy explained how he had come to realise that the market in which The Cloud operated had changed. It was no longer a young market, instead it was a becoming a big, more established market. He felt that the company was at a crossroads and after careful consideration, Murphy sold The Cloud to BSkyB and became a non-executive director in June 2010.

Main learning point: Hearing someone like Niall Murphy talk through his experiences of founding and then successfully selling a startup business was insightful and inspiring at the same time. I guess what I liked particularly about Murphy’s story was the different stages he and the business went through, which he presented in an honest but exciting way. The MBA students seemed to be soaking it up and so was I.

It makes me wonder how I will feel about Eric Ries who some people regard as a ‘startup guru’ and describe as a rockstar in the startup scene. I will be going to Ries’ London book presentation tomorrow night and it looks like a lot of the great and good of young, talented UK entrepreneurs will be joining me. Will Ries’ story turn out to be as interesting and inspiring as Murphy’s? Will he be as likeable and down to earth as Murphy? Will keep you posted.

I’m currently trying to learn more about streaming in its various forms. Streaming is all about the delivery method of media such as audio, film or TV. There are basically two forms of streaming: live streaming and archived streaming.

Archived streaming is more about ‘on-demand’ streaming (think BBC’s iPlayer and Lovefilm’s Player) or Marks & Spencer broadcasting a vodcast on food you can order for Christmas. The technology used to deliver this is fairly similar to live content, apart from the fact that the ‘content source’ for archived streaming can be as varied as a tape or an audio file.

I don’t think one has to be a great visionary to predict a great future for streaming, with a multitude of devices to stream video content to. A good, recent example of these bright prospects is Klip, a mobile video app that lets you share video content with your friends. These are the reasons this service caught my attention:

It’s the highest ranked social video app in the App store – Klip is an iOs (as in ‘Apple only’) app that lets users view, capture, share and discover video on their iPhone. Other examples of social video apps are Rounds, Vlix and Socialcam.

High quality video streaming – A key aim for Klip is to provide the highest quality video streaming around for mobile device. You simply shoot a new ‘Klip’ or grab one from your Klip Camera Roll and share it with the Klip community, your friends on Facebook, Twitter, on your YouTube channel, or by email.

Underlying technology – Even though I’m not a techie, it will be interesting to find out more about the underlying Klip technology that enables users to swipe a video for a preview. The video will then play at the accelerated speed at which you move your finger across the video. If you shake the phone, all the videos will begin playing on the page.

Adaptive streaming – I learnt that because mobile bandwidth can be unreliable, Klip includes adaptive video streaming which means that it automatically adjusts the quality of the video streaming based on a user’s mobile network conditions.

Cloud component – The sharing on Klip is done around hashtags so that users can easily surface and find content by topic or event. Big on Klip’s product roadmap is the cloud component in its technology, enabling users to search and index hashtags in realtime.

Main learning point: Good to learn more about streaming. The term is often used very loosely and distinguishing between live and archived streaming feels like a good starting point. There will be more examples to follow, but Klip is an interesting one since its aim is to achieve the highest quality streaming as well as encouraging its users to really interact with its content.

Rise of services to protect privacy and security – Having more services based in the cloud almost automatically means an increase in the number of cloud-based solutions available to protect devices against malware.

Main learning point: I feel like I’m continuously discovering new possibilities with respect to cloud computing, whether it’s real-time translation or tracking mobile users 24/7. The cloud is without doubt one of those areas that will keep developing and that I hopefully will learn a lot more about.

This week saw Apple launching its iCloud music streaming and online data storage service. It will enable users to instantly access any song purchased on iTunes on any device. Anything downloaded from the iTunes Store will be made available on all your Apple devices for free.

In addition, for $25 a year, iTunes Match will take every song from your iTunes library – including those songs ripped from your CD collection or downloaded ‘elsewhere’ – and store them on Apple servers in the cloud.

Users will thus be able to download any of their (up to 20,000) tracks stored in the cloud onto their iPad/iPhone/Mac/PC without spending hours transferring the music across.

Since the official introduction of iCloud at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this week there has been a quite of hype about it. But what is it all about, what makes iCloud different from any of the other cloud based services?

It’s Apple! – By default, every WWDC is looked at with much anticipation, by developers and users alike. However, Apple cynics see iCloud as yet another way to tie customers further into the Apple eco-system.

It includes non-iTunes purchased songs – iTunes Match will enable users to store any songs ripped from their CDs or downloaded/purchased elsewhere.

It has two advantages over its main competitors – Unlike iCloud’s competition – Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Google’s Music Beta – Apple seems to have agreements in place with most of the major music labels and publishers. More importantly, Apple has the complimentary hardware that the likes of Amazon, Google or Dropbox don’t have. If you already own a Mac or an iPhone it does make a lot of sense to use iCloud and to sign up for iTunes Match.

Main learning point: I now have a better understanding of what all the hype has been about. Apple has launched a free cloud-based storage service that promises user friendliness and the end of worrying about licensing and digital rights. However, for iCloud to fullfil its promise I believe it all comes down to uptake and web access: “will users buy (into) iTunes Match?” and “will iCloud eventually become accessible via the web (and not just via Apple devices)?” It will be interesting to see whether (a) Apple customers are willing to move their music libraries to the cloud as well as pay for iTunes Match and (b) whether Apple will launch iCloud web apps in the near future.